1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to decorative sheet material, a process for producing decorative sheet material, and to products, such as ribbon, pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, laminated products, embossed products and molded products, produced therefrom.
2. Description of the Background Art
The three primary types of decorative ribbon in widespread use today are woven yarn-based ribbon, nonwoven yarn-based ribbon, and foamed, oriented, polypropylene-based ribbon.
The woven yarn-based ribbons are generally the finest ribbons in terms of yarn-like luster, texture, feel, and quality of color. Although the quality of such ribbon is high, manufacturing costs are also relatively high.
The foamed, oriented, polypropylene-based ribbons generally do not offer the aesthetics obtainable with the woven yarn-based ribbons, since these ribbons are generally stiff and have a plastic-appearing surface rather than the yarn-like luster of the woven yarn-based ribbons. An advantage found in these polypropylene-based ribbons is that they can be thermally welded, e.g., by sonic sealing, to form ribbon assemblies, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,637,455 and 4,329,382.
Nonwoven yarn-based ribbons, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,626,883, possess the excellent aesthetics of yarn-like luster, texture, feel, and quality of color found in woven yarn-based ribbons, and can be manufactured much less expensively than the woven yarn-based ribbons. The ribbon described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,626,883 has a tissue-like web of staple viscose rayon fibers and plasticized staple acetate rayon fibers autogenously interbonded at their crossing points to form a network. A monolayer of aligned yarns of non-plasticized continuous acetate rayon filaments is autogenously bonded onto one face of the web of the plasticized acetate rayon fibers.
This composite is impregnated by sizing that superficially coats the yarns. Although the aesthetics of this nonwoven yarn-based ribbon are excellent and manufacturing expenses are less than for producing the woven yarn-based ribbon, deficiencies in the nonwoven yarn-based ribbon are present. The volatile plasticizer used on the staple acetate rayon fibers is costly and requires the use of expensive processing equipment such as oven filter scrubbers. Additionally, such ribbon cannot be sufficiently sonically bonded to form durable ribbon assemblies, but must be bonded by applying adhesive to the areas to be bonded, a method generally more difficult to control than thermal bonding.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,427 (Grant et al.) discloses thermally adhesive webs. The webs have substantially parallel fusible polymeric filaments thermally bonded to and interconnected by randomly arranged polymeric fibers. The parallel filaments generally have a diameter substantially greater than the diameter of the interconnecting filaments and adjacent parallel filaments are generally spaced apart 0.5 to 5 mm. Although such a web is thermally adhesive, the web does not possess the aesthetics desired for decorative ribbon and sheet material.
The present invention provides a decorative sheet material which has the excellent aesthetics of the nonwoven yarn-based ribbon material and thermal sealability of the polypropylene film-based ribbons.